High-Tech Vest Lets Gamers Take a Hit

mytrip passed on a link to a PC World post about a unique accessory for FPS gamers. Called the 3rdSpace Gaming Vest, its goal is to translate in-game impacts into physical sensations. "Designed by a surgeon, the vest was originally created for use in the medical field to poke and prod patients in order to get a sense for what they were feeling. Since then, the vest has been adapted for the game industry, capable of delivering hits and shots exactly where you would feel them. Utilizing air pouches — four on front, four in back — the vest nudges and jabs gamers at eight different contact points."

Comments

use in porn

[timmarhy]

I predict the porno industry will find a use for it first, always being on the cutting edge as they are.

Gaming?

[excelblue]

Sure wouldn't wanna use this when playing the next version of UT. Wonder what getting blown up into a few chunks feels like... Wouldn't like to know =D

Only a matter of time

[hyades1]

Can underpants be far behind?

Market for this?

[Paul_Hindt]

People generally don't really buy such "specialty gaming peripherals", especially not the mass gaming market. While the idea itself is rather cool (although it would be cooler if it had electric shocks for the masochistic among us), these kinds of devices just never seem to catch on.

The video game market has seen all kinds of niche peripherals throughout the years...octagonal rings to stand in, treadmills to run on, gloves and goggles to wear, scores of vibrating chairs and seats, weird orbs and wheels and hands-free input devices...loads and loads of things. People just don't really buy them because they either don't work as well as intended, they only work well with a couple of different games, or the peripheral is just too damn expensive for most of us.

However, where such oddities really shine is in the arcade. It would be awesome to build arcade game unit that incorporated different input or sensory technologies which would really immerse the player into another world. Arcade games are perfect for that sort of thing because a whole game is built around the external unit.

Re:Market for this?

[toolie]

I think this is a product looking for a market. We did tests using something similar (called a 'tactile vest') to see if the added cues helped tactical pilots avoid terrain and identify the direction of targets quicker. The answer was an overwhelming 'no', the pilots hated it.

So far its been through the medical field and the aerospace field. I guess gaming is the next stop on trying to find a problem to fit this solution.

Re:Market for this?

[cp.tar]

Well, I seem to recall such a gaming vest from some ten years ago... designed for Doom II, IIRC...

So the first thing I thought was, wait, isn't that old news? Even by /. standards, really... (or is it another featured article for the 10th anniversary?)

Anyway... I'd say there is a limited level of immersion people are generally comfortable with.
I don't see this being beaten up while playing a game catching on any more than I see the scents accompanying movie pictures catching on. Maybe you'd like the scent of apple pie, but when zombies start walking around, not only the odd teenage girl will walk out to throw up - most people will.

Too much immersion is simply no longer enjoyable, at least when that immersion includes negative stimuli. Someone above said he wouldn't wear the codpiece; I say, if they made the codpiece alone and paired it with a sex game, they might be on to something.

Though I've always wondered whether the day will come when we'll be able to pick fights over the internet, wearing certain clothes to feel the other guy's punches... cyber violence at its most literal... ;)

Brilliant marketing

[nacturation]

With no ability to register any shots to your arms, legs, crotch, ass, or headshots... plus only four air bags on front and back, it sounds like it sure can let me feel *exactly* where I'd get hit.

Re:Interesting

[Arthur Grumbine]

In more important news, scientists are baffled by the latest reports from the independent research group 3rd Space apparently claiming that there are only 8 spots on the human body where you can actually be hit by a projectile.

Get on the wire. Tell everyone how to shoot these bastards down.

Re:Interesting

[Obyron]

Cheers. I thought the same thing when I read the summary. How can it claim to let you feel a hit exactly where it hit you, and then turn around and say that it only uses 8 contact points? By what rape of English does that mean "exactly?"